Favourite dramas

The first wuxia drama I watched and the one that lives in my heart, even if I don't have the discs anymore. The acting and martial arts here are top notch and the story stuck with me enough that I went and read the book years later.

Tightly plotted? Sure. Well acted? Certainly. Marvellously directed and edited so to keep great pace, even though the story takes months to happen and most happenings are slow moving parts of big, obfuscated plans? Most definitely.

But, really, every single actor has their character down to the smallest details. It's a joy to watch when personality shows in how someone pours tea or walks into a room, let alone those great dramatic scenes in the plot climaxes.  

Very satisfying.

Possibly the best xianxia romance I ever watched. It has every single trope of the genre, but it works them all marvelously. Great storyline, great performances and a very memorable song. Extremely entretaining and heart-wrenching at the same time.

Great action, amazing romance. Even if Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's relationship isn't supposed to be read as a romance, you'd have to be really hard-headed not to see the profound romance here. And it's such a great story filled with struggle, love and redemption. 

As for technical details, production is top notch, with some lovely sets and sceneries, as well as beautifully crafted outfits and makeup. Putting it all together with the clever cinematography you get some stunning scenes with movie quality.

Acting is also great, specially from Wang Yi Bo, since keeping stone-faced AND expressing emotions at the same time is A Skill.

A pearl of a romance that broke my heart in three different ways and made me feel so much lighter afterwards.

Life is precious indeed.

Amazing series, even if the ending could have had some 10 extra episodes in which to settle (still, it's a better ending than the book's unrealistic one). I love all the small details in this story, from the plot twists to the way they teach you court protocol so that you can feel it when the characters break it.

The settings, wardrobe* and makeup here are top-notch, but that would be nothing if the actors weren't all so talented. Somebody please give Chen Kun more drama parts!

* If you're into sewing, just look at the way they matched all the patterns at the seams. Also, you can tell by looking that the materials aren't cheap polyester like Some Other Dramas, but actual satin and silk brocade. I can't fathom how much a single one of those outfits cost.

I like stories in which so many things happen that you can't even quite write a synopsis (though I believe this whole list makes that very clear) and The Journey of Flower is one of those.

This series has everything: action, romance, melodrama, revenge, hilarious uses of magic, a gorgeous queer ruler, extensive use of the sentence "wrong is wrong", DongFeng, misguided loyalties, tragedies and sweetness. Just everything. It will lift you up so that it can tear you down better, so a bit of caution is warranted. Drink a lot of water before watching the ending.

Oh my the romance here is perfect. 

The plot feels very similar to Eternal Love 1 and 2 and this story is technically set in the same universe, but despite this it works much better than the other two, like it took the same story beats and refined them for optimum heart-squeezing. The fact that the actors are generally very good also helps.

This is one of those stories that pick up a bunch of tropes and use them so well you remember that Tropes Aren't Bad. The first 10 episodes, specially, are slow and built with  scenes you've probably seen elsewhere. Don't worry, it changes. After it takes the first time leap the story shines and you will understand why the slow start was needed.

After watching this I went and added a bunch of Liu Xue Yi dramas to my watchlist because he's amazing (and, yes, because TianQi is my sweet meow meow).

I watched this series in a single day many years ago, after seeing a scene posted on a blog as an oddity. After I finished I hunted down the manga and read that too. It's that good.